RESEARCH PAPERS
British Euroscepticism
The supremacy of Parliament is a refuge of freedom in Britain. The weakening of the sovereignty of Parliament is not only a threat to the independence of the legislative and libertarian tradition but also a threat to the rule of law, which rests on the legal legitimacy founded by elected lawmakers. This kind of legitimacy cannot be ensured by the European institutions which do not have the right to demand obedience from the European citizens, since it rests on national identities embedded in individual states. The so called ‘democratic deficit’ is getting worse with every interference of EU law in the lives of the people.
It is being continuously emphasized that in Britain, various EU rules are construed as a malign attack on the British way of life which needs to be repelled.
Europeanness means the British identity being just one among many. The problem is that the EU possesses no historical or cultural basis. Therefore, it is doomed to be perceived as a rather abstract and artificially made concept.
The Sanctions on Russia
A report released today calls for a diplomatic offensive on Russia in a bid to arrest the implosion of Ukraine, and estimates the potential cost of sanctions against Russia to the West as being over $700bn.
Russia must be involved in negotiating a European co-operation agreement with Ukraine, given the extensive history of Russian involvement in the region and the large Russian population within Ukraine’s borders.
The report is authored by Adriel Kasonta and a group of professionals and academics with first-hand experience of Eastern Europe.
It addresses the historical and cultural contexts of the contemporary tensions, and considers those tensions as economic and political problems capable of peaceful solution.
Following a recent House of Lords report on ending the violence, the report calls for greater structural aid to Ukraine, deeper engagement with Central and Eastern Europe, and the use of Ukraine as a door to European influence and reform in Russia herself.
Reflections on the Ukrainian Revolution
Looking at the current situation in Ukraine, it brings to mind the image of eighteenth century France pictured in one of the best-known intellectual attacks against the French Revolution written by Edmund Burke.
Reflections on the Revolution in France has been used as a defining piece of modern conservatism as well as an important contribution to international theory. Above all else, it has been one of the defining efforts of Edmund Burke's transformation of traditionalism into a self-conscious and fully conceived political philosophy of conservatism.
This paper examines the social contract theory part of Burke’s political thought to highlight similarities in some of the aspects of social behaviour to people in Kiev now and people in France then.